Launch server: Durandal (JP)

[Aki]

Hey all.

As per the thread title we will be continuing on in ARR on the Durandal server. Durandal is a LEGACY server meaning it is populated by existing characters from 1.0. It is also a Japanese local server - this does not necessarily mean that you can't play here unless you speak Japanese, it simply means the server is located in Japan. The majority population on Durandal will be Japanese and thus the majority of players will be logging in late if you're in the US or somewhere else outside of Oceania.

Why Durandal --

Without delving too deep into the philosophical and moral side of things most modern gamers can relate that the western MMO gaming community is plagued with illiterate ass-hats and would-be's. This is the one thing we want to avoid in a game. On the other hand, those who can converse in Japanese will know that not all Japanese are as polite and morally aware as the populace would like to think, however, from personal experience the moral ambiguity is far less and most players follow decently strict community maintained mannerisms.

But Aki, what about end-game content? How will we play together?

FFXIV:ARR revolves around a Duty Finder system which servers as a portal to finding groups for all dungeons, primal battles and raids in ARR. Even if you are on a Japanese server you can select to be matched with other English speakers (if you're a masochist, of course).

Secondly, when will we do events together?

This is obviously a tricky thing to consider as of yet we have no real bearing on who and how many members we will have. As of yet the majority of our members are located in Japan (Nationals and foreigners) and the rest spread around Asia and one American who works late. As we gain a better understanding of who can play when we will begin making events. Voice communication is not mandatory but we are considering investing in a Mumble server (or something similar) to ease progression. You don't have to speak Japanese on Mumble.


The Lodestone Ver. 2.0

When The Lodestone Ver. 2.0 rears it's refurbished head we will be relocating over there in order to make use of the new features and help organise things in a more accessible nature.

[Kaylei Eraisuithiel]

Nova Crystallis: How long after the game launch do you expect to allow Legacy characters to migrate to new servers?
Yoshida: We are thinking around six months. We will be checking the data on our side and we will see how the players are mixing, where they are going, and how the server balances are. We may push that date forward depending on these factors.

It appears, that most of us will be staying on Durandal by force if we choose to roll legacy characters.

[Aki]

[Awntawn]

I'm headed to Excalibur with most of the WoW Cows people. Sorry, I'm just so off the Japanese koolaid bandwagon, especially regarding MMO players XD That and the whole latency issue.

If they were truly designed to be split integrated servers, maybe I would have considered it. The way it seems to be turning out, I don't fancy being a minority group on a server for a game I'm paying a monthly fee for a quality experience on. If XIV 2.0 is a game that still requires strict "etiquette" for the community to function the way XI was, it's an inherent design flaw of the game, and I probably won't be sticking around long anyway.

Maybe some of the cross-realm stuff will pan out and we can still play together.

https://frontier.ffxiv.com/worldTransfer/na/index.html the realm change site for anyone interested.

[Blizz]

I'm with Awn on this too, i'm going with the cows! The JP stuff was fun back in the day but I don't have the time and dealings of being treated like shit from JPs and i can't talk back to them lol.

[Aki]

That's understandable, especially for people who can't read and write Japanese.

Next to the obvious because 'I live there/same time zone' reasoning that the people who are staying behind have put out, a lot of it is about the etiquette on Japanese servers and in the community. After WoW and GW2 I honestly can't stand a lot of English speaking players. The concept of anonymity removes most if not all moral obligations people have on those servers (this isn't to say Japanese players aren't scum bags at times, because they most certainly can be, but it's just a preference I can't negotiate with).

Hope you guys enjoy the game, it's been a long time coming!

[Kaylei Eraisuithiel]

I'll be moving to Excalibur as well, most of the people I played with on a regular basis are moving there. The language differences and time zones are other factors. I feel terrible about it. :(

I have been keeping up with this forum the whole time, I hope cross server functionality works.

[Aki]

Not to worry, I'm sure something will happen sooner or later. These guys are pretty ambitious with keeping up to the global standard so I'm sure if there's a way to have it in, they'll find a way to fit it into their patch schedules. Be sure to add me on the new Lodestone, too (Aki Rouscelia) so we can all keep tabs on what's going on.

[Seyumi]

[Aki]